Monday, June 28, 2010

Puppy Advice Please!

Laila has been so good so far. She hasn't been chewing on our things, she hasn't peed in the house much and she has been sleeping a lot. The only problem we have is that she HATES her crate.

We have been leaving the door open so she can explore it if she wants. She has a toy inside and we give her a treat when she goes inside it. She doesn't have a lot of interest going inside the crate though.

At night time, we have to put her in the crate, since we obviously can't be watching her. This is when she FREAKS out. Our otherwise calm puppy whines, cries and barks for quite a long time (30 min. +). Reading online, it sounds like we've been doing the right thing by not going to her when she cries because she wants our attention. We have been setting our alarm for the middle of the night to give her a bathroom break. But she is getting so upset that she is going to the bathroom in her crate several times per night because she's so worked up. I've been doing tons of laundry.

This is the only thing that has been frustrating about our otherwise perfect pup! Any ideas??
"Please don't make me get in the crate!!!!!"

2 comments:

  1. There are two things you can do to help calm her down. Take one of gils big sweatshirts after he has worn it so it smells like him (or you) and wrap a small clock that ticks in it so its like a heartbeat kinda. Also get one of those water bottles (old school rubber ones for cramps and such) and put hot water in and also wrap in the sweatshirt so its warm like she is cuddling up to a person in the crate. Thats how we trained Kayla and she always slept in her crate. :)

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  2. Oh yeah, I forgot about the clock trick. We did that with Benny too, I think. The water bottle is a good idea. Thanks!!

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